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Interests piqued for water authority
Officials say they want to explore possibilities
By Ben Orcutt - borcutt@nvdaily.com
FRONT ROYAL -- Several area officials say they want to explore the possibility of a regional water authority involving Front Royal, Warren County and Frederick County.
Warren County Supervisors Chairman Archie A. Fox asked during a Tuesday work session that the topic be placed on the agenda of a future liaison committee meeting with the town.
"You're probably aware that Frederick County has shown an interest in perhaps [drawing] water from our area, and what I would be interested in doing is just to put it on the liaison committee [agenda]," Fox said. "I have not spoken with anyone there, but I know that they are interested, and what I would like to know is how the town might feel on discussions for perhaps a regional concept. I have no idea whether it would be of a benefit to the town or even [if] they want to discuss it. But perhaps we could put it on the liaison committee [agenda] to see where it might go and if there is any interest."
Bill M. Ewing, vice chairman of the Frederick County Board of Supervisors and Opequon District supervisor, said he would be open to such a discussion.
"I don't know about the rest of the board, but I would be," Ewing said Wednesday. "We have a service authority that controls our water. I'm willing to explore it. I think it's worth exploring. We'd have to sit down and talk about it and see what ramifications exist, see what's involved and what the benefits would be."
Fox told his colleagues on the panel that he is not sure how such an authority would work, but he wants to discuss the concept. A regional authority could help the town expand its current level of service in the U.S. 340-522 corridor, he said.
"I know they have a dead-end circuit that feeds that corridor and what I hear talk of from time to time is a route could be built, which would entail coming across [Interstate] 66 and the Shenandoah River," Fox said.
While he did not dismiss the idea entirely out of hand, Shenandoah District Supervisor Richard H. "Dick" Traczyk voiced misgivings about revisiting the concept of a regional water authority.
"I'd be surprised," Traczyk said, regarding whether the town would be interested in the idea. "As you know, I went down this road several years ago and it was an outcry from the community about taking water and the business away from Front Royal. So it was pretty loud and clear that there was no interest in it at that time. It might be appropriate that they look at it again, but this was ... not supported at all by the community."
"It may not be again," Fox added.
Members of the Front Royal Town Council were cautious in reacting to the idea.
"We'd have to discuss it first," said Mayor Timothy W. Darr. "There would have to be a whole lot of research done on the town and staff's part's to see if it's feasible. I'm sure we would be open to hear what the county had to say. It's one of those things that you can't make a decision overnight. [It] would take a long process of fact-finding before you could come up with a good consensus." Councilman Thomas E. Conkey spoke in a similar vein.
"I'm open for discussion," Conkey. "I'd be glad to hear what they propose, what they're offering the town. Without knowing what they're offering, I really can't comment more than that. They'd have to make a pretty good case that they're going to give the town something significant. I'd also have to keep in mind I'm a county citizen too [regarding the costs of such an entity]."
Since the town no longer can collect a meals tax from restaurants in the U.S. 340-522 corridor, Councilman Carson C. Lauder Jr. said he would hesitate to join a regional water authority with Warren and Frederick counties.
"At the present time I'm very doubtful that I can see the advantage of Front Royal, Warren County in a water agreement with Frederick County, because at the present time the town is still having some afterthoughts because of the water agreement with the county in the 522 corridor," Lauder said. "So why would we want to invite a third party in, even if it was a good neighbor like Frederick County? Why would we want to weaken ourselves by giving away our greatest commodity and losing control?"
Without municipal water, all development stops. Frederick County is running out of water. Twenty years from now, development will stop in Frederick County.
For the past 20 years, every desperate proposal to create a regional water authority has originated in Frederick County, which has no major river running through its borders and consequently has no riparian water rights to exploit, except for one; the City of Winchester has water rights to withdraw about 10 million gallons a day from the North Fork of the Shenandoah River. They don't use that much -- yet -- but, they have had a long term agreement to sell several million gallons per day to Frederick County. So far, Winchester has resisted increasing Fredericks water purchasing allotment. He who has the water makes the rules.
There is absolutely, positively, no benefit to Warren County or Front Royal or Winchester or Clarke County to sell any portion of their water rights to Frederick. Sooner or later Warren/Front Royal/Winchester/Clarke will face the same water availability issues now facing Frederick. Frederick County, like southern California, must lead the way to learn how to recycle their available water.
Thirsty men grab at straws. He who has the water makes the rules.
""It's as dead as a doornail" is how Michael Foreman describes the status of the effort to unify Winchester and Frederick County." - NV Daily, 26 Sept 2009
Everyone agrees Frederick politicians were only after Winchester's water rights and would endure almost anything to keep the developers happy. Everything else was window-dressing to disguise the grab for water. Frederick plays this game of "can we have some of your water?" musical chairs with surrounding governments. But, when the wooing stops and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow disappears, Frederick is always the one left standing..... without any water.
I, for one, would like to see all development in Warren County come to a complete standstill, thereby preserving the rural nature of our county. Maybe Warren County should thumb their collective noses at Front Royal and just go ahead and sell all their water rights to Frederick, take the resulting windfall money and pay off all county debt and lower or abolish real estate taxes? No growth means no more population increase. Selling all our water rights will bring a stop to development in Warren before all the greenery is damaged, leaving Frederick to deal with the benefits of available water: an endless cycle of more development, rising population, new schools, more traffic, bigger roads, higher taxes, more development, rising population......
I agree with you, Min Gent! I'll add one caveat: Everyone, not just Frederick County should learn how to recycle their available water better. The less that comes out of the river the better the river is able to clean and care for itself. :)
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